Pastor Greg Locke Says FBI Raided His Home, Insists He Has 'Nothing to Hide'

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Pastor Greg Locke of Global Vision Bible Church in Tennessee revealed Sunday that his home was raided by dozens of FBI agents investigating allegations of misappropriation of church funds, but said he has “nothing to hide” and is confident he will be proven innocent.

Locke shared the details prior to his sermon on Sunday, explaining that the raid occurred several weeks ago while he and his family were on a six-week sabbatical, mourning the death of their 20-year-old son, Evan.

The pastor emphasized that he is not angry with the FBI agents, saying they were simply carrying out their duties in response to what he called “unwarranted” accusations against him and the church.

“We have nothing to hide, and they're figuring that out. And I'm not fighting them,” he said. “... The thing that angered me was not that it happened, but that the enemy kicked us while we were down, and it took away the opportunity for me to continue to grieve.”

The agents “could very well be just as much victims as we are,” he added.

The raid was terrifying, he said.

“Three weeks into our sabbatical, we were in bed at home, and at 6 o'clock in the morning, 60 federal agents surrounded our home, and we didn't know they were there. And I heard a faint knock at the door, and I got up. And by the time I got my robe on and got out of the bedroom, a team of federal agents had batter rammed in our front door in riot gear and had me on the ground. I was screaming, ‘I've got kids in the house! Don't shoot! Don't shoot! I've got kids in the house!’

“And they drug my wife outside in her nightshirt and underwear, kicked our kids’ bedroom doors in, drug my kids out of bed – three of them were home. We didn't know what was going on. Here’s my kids mourning the loss of their brother, and they’ve got my son Malachi up against the wall with an AR at his back.”

The agents then took the family outside.

“We were shocked, terrified in the moment. They pulled me aside and said, ‘We're here because of an overabundance the last couple of years of allegations online that you have misappropriated church funds.’ I was so shocked in the moment. I said, ‘A phone call wouldn't have sufficed?’ For three hours, they served us two search warrants – one for our house, one for Locke Media – and then a subpoena for the church building.”

Locke said the search took three hours as agents took cellphones, computers and a small box of bank statements. The agents, he said, “began to realize, ‘Oh my goodness, this house had nothing in it that we were told it would be full of.’”

“[But] they have to continue to do their investigation. And so, for the last three weeks, three and a half weeks, our lives have been turned inside out,” he said.

Investigators also seized his “generosity journals,” he said.

“They're like, ‘Holy smokes, this guy’s not only giving a ton of money away to people all over the world, but the guy's given 100 times more to the church than the church has ever given into his family, and so there's been no personal benefit.’”

The church's bank accounts were frozen as part of the investigation, meaning the staff cannot be paid, he said. Locke expressed confidence that he and the church would be proven innocent.

“We are literally a Book of Acts church that is functioning with no income and no ability to pay any bills whatsoever, unless it's cash,” he said. “... It's been the most trying time of 20 years of pastoring this church, and I'm at more peace than I have been in such a long time.”

Photo Credit: ©YouTube.com/GVLive

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel. 

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